Katie Baker, President
- September 2023
When I first started as GSH treasurer in 2017, I was amazed at how many activities and events the GSH is involved in. In the 2022/23 fiscal year, the GSH ran monthly special interest group talks for Rock Physics, Machine Learning, Unconventionals, Data processing, Acquisition and Potential Fields. In addition, we had our recurring annual events such as the Icebreaker, Sporting Clays, Spring Symposium and the Honors and Awards Ceremony. The Outreach Committee that focuses on K-12 and the general public participated in and ran school driven programs including the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston, School Career Days, as well as public awareness activites including involvement in Houston’s Energy Day, Earth Science Celebration at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Reach for the Stars! STEM Festival for Girls, Scout Fair and Girls Exploring Math and Science (G.E.M.S.). All in all, GSH runs over 70 events per year driven by close to 100 volunteers! All of the profits from these events go to support operating expenses, keeping the lights on and paying our office support staff.
Last year 2022/23 fiscal year was one of the first years in a long time that the GSH has been able to come close to meeting the budget and did not have to draw from our trust. This was thanks in part to a reorganization and office changes by the previous efforts of President Klaas Koster and additional cost cutting efforts under President Peter Eick with the help of Treasurer Rene Mott. As Members of the Board we all have a fiduciary responsibility, and a key goal and priority for me for this year is to challenge each board member to closely monitor budgets and flag issues early so that we can meet or exceed the planned budget.
To support our budgetary and organizational goals for 2023/24, we have updated the Organization structure to do away with the role of Editor – which was primarily targeted towards managing the printed Journal. Many of our members know that we no longer run a printed Journal and it is 100% digital. As of July 1, 2023 we have evolved the Editor Board position into a Communications Director position. This new Board position was established to streamline and standardize GSH communications and enforce the GSH brand through communications on the newsletter, website, the Digital Journal, and social media. The reorganization and branding has helped to reduce costs originally attributed with printing and graphics. The hope is that this streamlining will help strengthen our GSH image/brand to attract new membership and facilitate member engagement with the GSH.
Our kick-off event for the 23/24 fiscal year, The Icebreaker, was a great success and it makes me optimistic about our team and goals for the year. We hope to see you, our members out at the many events that we have planned this year. Please remember to say thanks if you run into one of the many volunteers that make this Society what it is. It couldn’t be done without the countless hours of support from our volunteers!